Russia has no desire to attend a Western-organized peace conference on Ukraine. Foreign Minister Lavrov would prefer to conquer more territory in the neighboring country first.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has sharply criticized Western plans for another peace conference on Ukraine. There are points that are unacceptable for his country, Lavrov said at a press conference on the sidelines of the UN Security Council meeting in New York. “The course has been set to push through the so-called Zelensky plan at any cost, which has the clear form of an ultimatum.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had made the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine a condition for peace. Lavrov, on the other hand, once again insisted on Moscow’s demand to occupy even more Ukrainian territories.
“There (in the east and southeast of Ukraine) not all territories have been liberated yet. We cannot leave the people who voted to return to Russia under the yoke of the regime that is eradicating everything Russian,” said Lavrov. The claim that the Russian-speaking population in Ukraine had to be protected served as a pretext for Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin to start his war of aggression against the neighboring country more than two years ago.
While Moscow initially claimed the two regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, which had already been partially occupied by Russian forces, the Kremlin also annexed the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions in autumn 2022. A referendum in the Russian-controlled part of the regions served as justification for the claims. The vote, which was supervised by the Russian military, was not recognized internationally.
In New York, Lavrov also briefly addressed the US journalist Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested in Russia. Russia has irrefutable evidence of the correspondent’s espionage activities, Lavrov said. His exchange is currently being discussed between the secret services in Washington and Moscow. Gershkovich and the “Wall Street Journal”, for which the 32-year-old worked as a correspondent in Russia, have rejected the espionage allegations. Putin had previously indicated that he wanted to exchange Gershkovich for a Russian citizen imprisoned in Germany for a political assassination.
